Judge ends NFL lockout — for now, at least

This undated photo courtesy of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota shows U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson. (Associated Press: U.S. District Court in Minnesota)

Game on, maybe.

A federal judge in St. Paul today ordered the NFL to re-open for business after granting locked-out players a preliminary injunction against the league in their antitrust lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson ruled that the NFL's lockout is "inflicting, and will continue to inflict, irreparable harm upon" the players and that ending the work stoppage is in the public interest.

Her order comes five days after the sides postponed court-ordered mediation that failed to settle the lawsuit or produce a new collective bargaining agreement with the lockout, now in its 46th day.

"We will promptly seek a stay from Judge Nelson pending an expedited appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals," the NFL said in a statement. "We believe that federal law bars injunctions in labor disputes. We are confident that the Eighth Circuit will agree. But we also believe that this dispute will inevitably end with a collective bargaining agreement, which would be in the best interests of players, clubs and fans. We can reach a fair agreement only if we continue negotiations toward that goal."

It remains unclear whether Nelson's decision allows teams to negotiate with individual players or sign free agents. The NFL draft will start Thursday. Teams were limited to trades only involving picks during the lockout.

Securing the injunction was a crucial victory for the players in their labor fight against the league.

The court order lifts the lockout while the case is litigated.

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The order also validates, for now, the controversial decision by executive director DeMaurice Smith to decertify the Players Association and renounce the union's federal bargaining rights so individual players could sue the NFL under antitrust laws.

"The nation's labor laws have always applied only where an action involves or grows out of a labor dispute," Nelson wrote in her 89-page ruling. "Such a labor relationship exists only where a union exists to bargain on behalf of its members."

Leverage has swung over to the players with labor talks stalled and the sides divided about how to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to share $9 billion in revenue.

And they could gain more negotiating power from a familiar source in another Minnesota courtroom.

U.S. District Court Judge David Doty has a May 12 hearing in Minneapolis to decide whether to order the NFL to pay players damages for violating the previous labor agreement by negotiating below-market television contracts to secure $4 billion in lockout insurance from the networks.

Doty has had ultimate authority on NFL labor matters since 1993, when he brokered the landmark Reggie White settlement that ushered in the current era of free agency and the salary cap.

The NFL twice has attempted but failed to remove Doty from his stewardship.

The most recent clash involved Doty's 2008 decision allowing Michael Vick to retain $20 million in bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons after the quarterback was convicted of fronting an illegal dog-fighting ring.

On April 6, Nelson held a four-hour hearing in which attorneys for the NFL and the decertified Players Association argued whether she has jurisdiction to intervene in the league's first work stoppage since 1987.

The plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the league include: Vikings defensive end Brian Robison and free-agent linebacker Ben Leber; San Diego receiver Vincent Jackson; Kansas City linebacker Mike Vrabel; and superstar quarterbacks Tom Brady of New England, Peyton Manning of Indianapolis and Drew Brees of New Orleans.

Former Viking Carl Eller, the Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end, headlines a group of five retired players who joined the active players' lawsuit hoping to stop the lockout.

Another subset of active players reportedly is considering filing a separate class-action suit to force the sides back to the bargaining table.

The case before Nelson pits the NFL's business rights under U.S. labor laws against federal antitrust protections for individual players.

The players claim the lockout imposes anticompetitive restrictions on their ability to earn wages and market their services to teams.

The NFL counters that the National Labor Relations Board governs labor disputes. The league filed an unfair-labor-practices charge against the NFLPA in February for threatening to decertify, but the NLRB has not indicated when it will rule.

The league called the NFLPA's decision to decertify a premeditated negotiating tactic that doomed labor talks and illegally dragged the process into court.

Nelson disagreed.

"Where those employees effectively renounce the union as their collective bargaining agent — and accept the consequences of doing so — and elect to proceed in negotiating contracts individually, any disputes between the employees and their employers are no longer governed by federal labor law," she ruled.